Cold Plunge
Tubs, chillers and the temperature question — compared on published specs.
A cold plunge is two purchases pretending to be one: something to hold the water, and something to chill it. Most buyers get the tub right and the chiller wrong, because tub capacity is published everywhere and chiller capacity almost nowhere.
The number that decides whether your setup works is the relationship between the two. A 1/3 HP chiller against 216 gallons of uninsulated water will lose. The same chiller against 88 insulated gallons is fine. That is the whole problem, and it is arithmetic — which is why we start with what a chiller actually costs to run rather than with a list of tubs.
Everything in Cold Plunge
Best Cold Plunge Chillers
Five chillers compared on horsepower, cooling capacity and what they actually publish.
Best Cold Plunge Tubs
Capacity is the spec that decides your running cost. Five tubs, measured against it.
Cold Plunge Benefits
What the research supports, what it does not, and where the evidence is genuinely mixed.
Cold Plunge Temperature
What temperature to use, why colder is not better, and the published safety floor.